Novak Djokovic beats Carlos Alcaraz to win Olympic gold and career Golden Slam

The No 1 seed prevailed over the No 2 seed in an epic of intensity and tactical fortitude, ultimately decided by Djokovic’s adaptability behind serve.

He played two completely flawless tiebreaks, which have become a calling card of his game through 24 Grand Slam singles titles and now, finally, one Olympic gold medal, at the age of 37.

Alcaraz earns a silver medal at his first Olympics, with the 21-year-old likely to play many more at the highest level.

How did Alcaraz and Djokovic make this such an intense contest?

MATT FUTTERMAN:  It happens so rarely, especially on the biggest stage when tension and nerves are running so high. Two all-time great players matching each other’s level for a long stretch and arguably nearly an entire match.

From the first balls on Sunday afternoon, it was clear that Djokovic and Alcaraz had come to play — and nothing less than their highest intensity would do. This wasn’t always a contest of the best technical level, with a few flubs and lazily errant returns on important points. But it was a contest: bruising, captivating, and, at times, reaching the peaks that only these two can hope to ascend, pretty much when playing each other.

It was far removed from the Wimbledon final last month when Djokovic, 39 days removed from knee surgery, came out flat and Alcaraz blew him off the court.

It was far removed from the last time these two played on Court Philippe-Chatrier at Roland Garros, in the semifinals of the 2023 French Open. That time, Alcaraz came out filled with nerves, played a tough but shaky second set, and then succumbed to nerves and cramps. Djokovic won in four.

On Sunday, we saw the Alcaraz who blasts nearly every backhand and forehand he can while mixing in the world’s softest and most deceptive drop shot. And the Djokovic who chases down more balls than anyone and gets them back with the quality that switches him from defense to offense in the blink of an eye. This was a case of shared intensity raising things, less so than shared stakes. Alcaraz has many more Olympic Games in him; this is likely Djokovic’s last.

They matched pressure serves. They traded drop-shot returns that traveled nearly parallel to the net. Djokovic moaned with effort when a chance arose. The only way Alcaraz could survive was with one of his high-decibel grunting forehands that lashed into the deepest corner of the court.

The first set lasted 93 minutes. What did it take for Djokovic to prevail? Nothing less than one of his signature, mistake-free tiebreakers and a lunging forehand drop volley that not even perhaps the fastest player in the game bothered to chase. He repeated the trick in the second set, with two screaming forehands into the corners.

The Wimbledon 2023 final was a five-set thriller that had them taking turns of being at their best, rather than matching each other’s heights, even if not their highest. This was more reminiscent of their Cincinnati final last August, a three-set, four-hour sweatfest that Djokovic won in a championship-deciding tiebreak.

How did the tactical battle morph through the match?

JAMES HANSEN: After the Wimbledon final, Djokovic was largely sanguine about how soundly he had been beaten, saying Alcaraz was simply better in every department. He did have one point of surprise: just how well Alcaraz had served.

That same quality — and, more visibly, speed — wasn’t quite there at Roland Garros, but Alcaraz compensated by using body serves to reliable effect, especially in pressure moments, saving three break points in a game in the first set. He then used his kick serve to the ad-side to draw short balls out of Djokovic, crunching forehands into the open court.

Djokovic, by contrast, was relying on the precision of his placement, particularly swinging serves down the T when serving to the advantage court, which Alcaraz struggled to return. But the real battle was on the deuce side, between Djokovic’s wide serve and Alcaraz’s deep return position. Djokovic could reliably extract a playable ball out of the Alcaraz forehand, striking it on the rise into the open court.

Until he couldn’t. In the dramatic 4-4 game that would eventually propel him to the first set, Djokovic came in off that tactic at 30-30 and flubbed an overhead back to Alcaraz. He lost the point.

At 40-40, he went to the well again but hesitated in coming in behind the forehand, allowing Alcaraz to laser a ball back deep and draw an error. And then at deuce again, he hit the forehand with little conviction, the ball rearing up off the tape for Alcaraz to dispatch. Slightly chastened, Djokovic kept playing the pattern but was less vociferous in moving in behind the ball.

Djokovic brought in something different as a result. Able to use Alcaraz’s scarcely believable foot speed against him, he peppered the Spaniard with balls back behind his backhand, feeding off Alcaraz’s ability to anticipate and retrieve a ball into the open court.

How did Djokovic raise his confidence?

MATT FUTTERMAN: It’s incredible to think that a player with 24 Grand Slam titles could ever suffer from doubts about his abilities, but few great players have ever been as honest about confidence demons as Djokovic.

It doesn’t take much in a sport with so much mental strife: Djokovic came by his doubts honestly heading into Sunday’s final. He hadn’t won a tournament all year and had never won a gold medal. Alcaraz had won the last two Grand Slam titles and Djokovic knew he hadn’t played at his level or even at Jannik Sinner’s since last fall, a lifetime ago in tennis. They have been setting the standard in the sport. Not him.

But late Friday night, after winning his semifinal against Lorenzo Musetti, Djokovic, known for having the strongest brain in the game, delivered a masterclass on talking himself into contention and shifting the pressure to Alcaraz.

Alcaraz was clearly the favorite, he said, just as he had ahead of their semifinal at Roland Garros last year, when Alcaraz was the world No 1 and top seed.

“He has proven himself to be the best player in the world at the moment,” Djokovic said of Alcaraz. “He won Roland Garros, he won Wimbledon, beat me in the finals quite comfortably there, reached the finals without dropping a set.”

But then came the pivot and the window into his mind. He was a different player now, he said, three more weeks removed from knee surgery. He was moving and striking the ball better.

“Not to take anything, of course, away from his win in Wimbledon finals,” he said. “He was dominating and deservedly a winner. But I feel more confident about myself and my chances in the finals.”

In other words, the world had completely changed in less than a month, even if it really hadn’t.

Plus, it was the Olympics, he said. “Anybody’s game.”

And then it was his, as it hadn’t been before. The ball rocketed off his racket throughout, the noise crisp and clean and loud. It was a confidence and a quality not seen since that French Open final in 2023 and perhaps the US Open final in the same year.

A tale of three forehands?

MATT FUTTERMAN: Novak Djokovic has arguably the greatest backhand in the history of the sport, a hammering shot that almost never lets him down, that he can put anywhere and everywhere on the court.

But when the highlight reels of this gold medal match get compiled, it’s going to be a series of forehands in the dying moments — when everything was on the line — that will stand out. Two came off Alcaraz forehands — good, as the Spaniard’s was all match, drawing Djokovic wide, but not good enough. Not against a man who had the one tennis title that had escaped his grasp now within reach.

The first came on the very first point of the second-set tiebreak, with Djokovic in a full sprint across the baseline.

Not wanting to go to a deciding third set, he unleashed an outrageous curling crosscourt shot, on the kind of angle that he introduced to the game when he came on the scene nearly 20 years ago and began redrawing the dimensions of the court.

That gave him the early mini-break. Four points later, he did it once more, again heading to his right and ripping crosscourt, the kind of “hit-it-like-you-mean-it” (his words) stroke that he crushed for a winner when down match point against Roger Federer in the U.S. Open semifinal in 2011.

Same shot. Same result.

There would be another lethal forehand on the next point, inside-in this time, to the postage stamp corner to set up a forehand.

And then there was one last one, its destination obvious even before his arm started moving forward. Inside-in again, the postage stamp once more, Alcaraz unable to get it back and Djokovic crouching to his knees in tears, the gold medal that has eluded him for his entire career finally his.

What did Novak Djokovic say after the final?

“Incredible battle, incredible fight. When the last shot went past him, that was the only moment that I thought I could win the match.

“He keeps asking me to play my best tennis. I think when it mattered we both came up with big serves and big plays.

“I put my heart, my soul, my body, my family, everything on the line to win Olympic gold. Most of all it’s my country. The pride to play for Serbia. Carlos, Rafa, they love to play for Spain… You saw the reactions of these guys when they win. It’s something special, honestly.”

What did Carlos Alcaraz say after the final?

“It was three hours of great fight, incredible tennis.

“They were very difficult moments for me… I just couldn’t raise my level in the tiebreaks.”